Xenonauts finally launches

Posted By: Tim McDonaldJune 16, 2014

XCOM remake/spiritual successor Xenonauts has been in development for what seems like forever, but now it’s out. It’s out! You can buy it, and everything!

That actually isn’t anything new, of course; it’s been in Early Access for quite some time, so you’ve been able to buy it for ages. The difference is that it’s now officially done, and you can buy it on the official website and on GOG and everything. You can also buy it on Steam, where it’s still listed as being in Early Access because Steam is apparently a bit broken.

“Steam has a big button marked ‘Leave Early Access’ on top of the developer backend,” reads the Xenonauts developer update. “About five minutes ago I pressed it so Xenonauts could finally be officially released… but it’s giving me an error instead, so we can’t actually officially launch the game.”

Oh well. Presumably buying it on Steam will still net you the release build right now, but you can always opt for grabbing it on one of the other digital distribution outlets if you’d rather do that.

For the uninitiated, Xenonauts is a spiritual successor to the old XCOM games – back when they were called X-COM, in fact. You control a multinational military organisation circa the Cold War, defending the earth from an extraterrestrial threat. You’ll have to shoot down UFOs, research captured artifacts, outfit your soldiers, and control them in turn-based isometric combat against the alien aggressors. In short, it’s sort of like what would happen if UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-COM: UFO Defense had a horrific alien baby with basically any game that runs happily on modern systems.

I will likely pick it up sometime soon, because I rarely decline a nice bit of turn-based alien-fighting. If you want to do the same, head over to Steam, GOG, or the official site.